Reuse and the Textile Services Industry

Between 1960 and 2007 the amount of waste each person in the United States creates has almost doubled from 2.7 to 4.6 pounds each day. The most effective way to stop this trend is by preventing waste in the first place. Reusing items is a way to stop waste at the source because it delays or avoids an item’s entry into the waste collection and disposal system. Reuse also conserves resources and reduces pollution.

General Reuse Industry Statistics:
1. Between two and five percent of the waste stream is potentially reusable.
2. Containers and packaging represent approximately 28 percent materials reused in 2000.
3. There are 1,700 tire-retreading operations in North America.
4. There are more than 6,000 reuse centers across the United States.
5. Since 1977 some 250 million pounds of plastic per year have been kept out of the waste stream.
6. Reusable diaper services employ 10,000 – 12,500 people across the country.

The textile services industry with 1,500 facilities and 140,000 employees across the country is a large, efficient reuse industry. The industry rents clean sheets, hospital gowns, pillowcases, napkins, uniforms, table linens and a wide variety of other products to hotels, hospitals, restaurants and other industrial and commercial companies. Reusing these products time and time again has significant environmental benefits. For example, hospital gowns that are rented and cleaned after each use create four times less solid waste than paper gowns, while reusable cloth napkins produce one-fifth the amount of solid waste compared with paper napkins.

Textile Services Industry Reuse Statistics:
1. Roll (cabinet) towels used for drying hands produce 1/15 the amount of solid waste of paper towels when two paper towels are used.
2. In the foodservice sector, paper towels produce almost three times more solid waste than cloth bar towels.
3. Cloth shop towels can be used for five to ten tasks before washing and generate ten times less solid waste than paper disposable towels.
4. Home laundering of uniforms uses 2.8 times more water per uniform under the likely home scenario of five uniforms per load.
5. Single use adult incontinence care products generate 75 times more waste.
6. The industry consistently invests in new technologies for resource-conservation and pollution prevention, achieving the following results in the last decade:
a. 43% Pollutant reduction
b. 28% Reduction in water use
c. 15% reduction in greenhouse gases
d. 14% decrease in total energy use